ought was mitigated, or ought was changed, in the terms of the existing contract between God and his people, for the interval in question. In the absence of any such change, the Law remained in its original force, and was binding to the extent of its original requisitions. An experimental process was going on, silently it may be, but still effectually for the end in view-to ascertain how far the Jew either could or would comply with these terms of his original engagement; and the result of the experiment was already known, before the first prophet, that is, the first of a new order of messengers from God, appeared among them, in the discharge of his proper commission. This definite interval, interposed to allow for the natural operation of the Mosaic covenant, and for the proof of its effects on the lives and conduct of the people of God-expressed in the language of the parable-is the period transacted after the departure of the owner of the vineyard, preparatory to the maturity of its fruits; and necessarily required to elapse, before his first demand to his own share of its productions could be made.

The mission of the servants in the parable then, is the mission of the prophets under the old dispensation; and the particulars of the agreement between the fictitious history relating to the former, and the real, in reference to the latter, may be pointed out in a variety of respects.

As first, the mission of the servants was the introduction of a new order of persons-in the œconomy of the transaction relating to the vineyard; and the institution of the order of the prophets is an equally observable era in the economy of the Jew

66

ish church. The circumstances of the birth of Samuel were of an extraordinary kind, and calculated to raise the presumption that he was already destined in the purposes of the Divine providence, to fulfil an extraordinary part. His consecration to the service of God, from the time of his birth, and his bringing up in the temple, in perpetual attendance on the sanctuary, the offices of religion, and the ministering priest, were well adapted to strengthen that presumption. "The word of the Lord was precious in those days;" and whatsoever communications might be vouchsafed in particular instances, and to serve especial purposes, "there was no open "vision;" there was no constant or standing communication with God, nor any definite and well-understood channel, through which it must be carried on. The first revelation of God to the future prophet was made at an early age, and under circumstances of peculiar solemnity; and not more interesting to the house of Eli in particular, than to the nation at large. That first revelation was followed by more; and none of his words was permitted to fall to the ground; that is, the inspiration and authority of the prophet were confirmed by infallible proofs, and all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba, had speedily reason to know that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord.

Again, from the time of the mission of the first of the servants, the rest of the history of the vineyard is more properly an account of the order, and ministry, and treatment of the servants, as sent to the husbandmen on a certain errand, than of any thing else; and from the time of the first institution of the prophetical office, the best description which can

be given of the nature and particulars of subsequent Jewish history, so far as it is recorded in the books of scripture, and so far as it enters into details, is that of the account of the mission, the ministry, the succession and reception of the prophets, rather than of any thing else.

The personal designation of these messengers is that of the servants, the subordinate members of the household of the owner of the vineyard. Their relation to the Lord of the vineyard was consequently closer than that of the husbandmen, who were but his tenants. The whole community of the Jews was doubtless in one sense the household or family of God, especially in comparison of any other of the nations of mankind. But among the tribes of Israel, there was one, the tribe of Levi, which God himself had chosen to stand in a peculiar relation to himself; and by thus bringing it near to him above the rest, had invested with greater comparative sanctity than any of the rest. By virtue of this separation, then, though the whole congregation might be holy in general, the tribe of Levi was holy in particular; and though all might be the family or household of God, the tribe of Levi were his servants in a sense beyond the rest. Now though it may not be capable of proof that the prophets belonged universally to the tribe of Levi, it is certain that in some instances they did so"; and at least, as the designation of the tribe of Levi to the ministry of the tabernacle, rendered them holy above their brethren, and the servants of God, in a sense different from their brethren; so the designation of the prophets to their peculiar office, rendered them holy as individuals, and the servants of God, as individuals, in a sense in which none of

n Jeremiah for instance was a priest; Jeremiah i. 1.

their brethren could be said to be so. Nor indeed are they ever described in scripture, by any name or relation but that. The word of the Lord as spoken by them, is uniformly said to have been spoken by "the mouth of his servants the prophets.'

The first of the servants was not sent until the time of the fruits was come, in the history of the vineyard; and the first prophet did not appear among the Jews, until that period in the history of the visible church, when the Jews had long been settled in Canaan, long been in possession of the church, and long tried by subjection to their proper Law, and should long since have brought forth the fruits thereof, to the honour and praise of God. The mission of the servants once begun, it is continued ever after in a series of repeated overtures from the lord of the vineyard to his husbandmen, made by as many different messengers, down to a certain time, the point of the expiration of which, is at least considerably later than the point of its beginning. There is a similar series of succession in the order and ministry of the prophets, for a corresponding length of time in the history of the Jewish church. From the time of the appointment of Samuel to that office, to the close of the canon of scripture, (an interval probably of seven or eight hundred years' duration,) it is not possible to specify a period, when no such person, and bearing no such relation both to God and to the people, as the first of the prophets had sustained, and consequently not strictly his successor in the office which he had discharged, cannot be historically shewn to have existed.

t It is a very easy thing, from the time of the ordination of Samuel to the prophetical office, B. C. 1130, to the return from captivity, B. C. 536, to make out historically an uninterrupted

The servants came to the husbandmen, in the name, and sustaining vicariously the character of the

series of succession in the order of the prophets. Samuel himself, in all probability, was still living, up to the two last years of the reign of Saul. And in the very last year of Saul, just before his death, 1 Sam. xxviii. 6, we meet with an allusion to prophets, as among the stated means of communication with the Deity, under ordinary circumstances, which at that time, and under the circumstances of the case, were withheld from Saul. "And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him "not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets." Cf. verse 15.

The name of Gad occurs before the death of Samuel; 1 Sam. xxii. 5. (Cf. 1 Chron. xxix. 29: 2 Chron. xxix. 25); and Gad was still prophesying at the time of the numbering in the reign of David, B. C. 1018: 2 Sam. xxiv. 11-14: 1 Chron. xxi. 9-13. Nathan is spoken of as a prophet early in the reign of David, 2 Sam. vii. 2; and was still prophesying at the close of his reign, 1 Kings i. (cf. 1 Chron. ix. 29; xvii. 1: 2 Chron. xxix. 25; xxix. 29); and possibly some time after the beginning of the reign of Solomon, 1 Kings iv. 5. Ahijah the Shilonite, was prophesying at the end of the reign of Solomon; 1 Kings xi. 29. (cf. 1 Chron. ix. 29), and some time after the beginning of the reign of Jeroboam; when he was an old man, 2 Kings xiv. 2—4.

The man of God, who was sent from Judah, early in the reign of Jeroboam, the first king of Israel, to denounce the future judgment of God against the altar at Bethel, is doubtless to be numbered among the regular prophets. The name of this prophet is not mentioned in Scripture (1 Kings xiii. 1); but Josephus, Ant. Jud. viii. viii. 5, calls him 'Iadov, or lado: though x. iv. 4, he gives him the name of Achias. At the same time, mention occurs of an old prophet, dwelling in Bethel; 1 Kings xiii. 11-18. 20-22. 26-32.

The name of Iddo occurs, sometimes under the appellation of the seer, and once under that of the prophet, both in the reign of Solomon, and the reign of Jeroboam (2 Chron. ix. 29), and the reign of Rehoboam (2 Chron. xii. 15), and in that of Abijah his son (2 Chron. xiii. 22). Shemaiah also was prophesying